She couldn't pay her electric bill and died. Don't blame the power company.

Yahoo

10-05-2025

Let's get something straight about a heat-related death in Arizona.
The ethics are pretty simple.
Just about anyone would agree that we shouldn't pull the plug on an 82-year-old woman who cannot pay or otherwise manage her power bill.
Not during the hot months. Not when it means depriving her of air conditioning and possibly her life.
I can't imagine anyone in this state thinking that's OK. Not a state lawmaker, not a corporation commissioner, not a utility watchdog, not a utility CEO.
It's a no-brainer.
But that's what happened to 82-year-old Kate Korman, who was found dead in her Sun City West home May 19, 2024 – about a week after the electricity was shut off.
And it happens to others.
For whatever reason, Korman fell behind some $500 on her Arizona Public Service electric bill in 2024, 12 News' Joe Dana reported.
For months, APS kept the power going and alerted her in several ways.
'In line with established practices and rules regulated by the (Arizona Corporation Commission), we communicated directly to this customer 10 times through email, phone, monthly bill and notifications,' an APS spokesperson told 12 News.
None of that was enough to save the life of Kate Korman.
And that offends our sense of social justice.
'This can't be real': He left his daughter alone in a hot car for hours. She died. | Opinion
Why didn't someone get to her and insist that she get help and support?
The harder question before us is who is responsible?
Who is going to shoulder the burden of preventing these sorts of tragedies? Who will ensure that the elderly will survive?
The state of Arizona? The Corporation Commission? The utilities? The families of the elderly?
A lot of people want to blame the utilities.
But why?
Why is it the utilities' obligation to do wellness checks on every senior citizen or disabled person or drug addict who has failed to pay their power bill and could potentially die for that omission?
The utility is in the business of generating and distributing power – one of the most important jobs in this state. We take it for granted that every time we flip a switch, the lights will go on.
But what if one week they didn't?
A few years ago, a team of researchers from Arizona State University, the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan asked that question:
What would happen if we had an extended blackout in the cities of Phoenix, Atlanta and Detroit during a heat wave?
The projections were tough in all cities, but in Phoenix – a desert city – where we routinely endure temperatures above 100 degrees for months, the projections were catastrophic.
It wouldn't just be little old ladies dying.
Opinion: He died fighting for Russia. Meghan McCain blamed his US veteran parents.
The city's death rate would increase by more than 700%. Some 13,250 people would die. And that just accounts for the dead.
Half of the population would grow so sick that they would require hospitalization.
As we all know from the COVID-19 pandemic, our hospital emergency rooms have nowhere near the capacity to deal with that kind of surge. So we're talking about a human cataclysm. Disaster.
Making sure the air conditioner flips on when the thermostat says 'go' is no small feat. Utilities must plan years ahead of time to produce and deliver reliable power and thus life-preserving cool air to our homes.
They must be vigilant maintaining the power infrastructure. And if one summer they drop the ball and the system collapses, we all will learn what hell is.
I don't expect the utilities to be the social workers who go to thousands of customers who didn't pay their bills to ensure that they have the mental and physical capacity to save themselves.
I want the utilities focused on their primary job – keeping the lights on for the larger community and saving many times more lives.
The job of utilities is about to get much tougher.
Not only must they plan to produce and distribute the power and maintain infrastructure, but they also must protect themselves from the growing threat of rogue actors.
In 2024, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) warned that U.S. power grids are growing more vulnerable to cyberattack.
'Geopolitical conflict, including Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the war in Gaza, have dramatically increased the number of cyber threats to North American power grids,' Reuters reported.
This coincided with the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States) warning that the Chinese government is 'infecting' critical online infrastructure by 'pre-positioning' viruses that threaten such operations as power, water, communications and transportation, Newsweek reported.
As the world grows more dangerous, our utilities will need to take more and expensive measures to protect their systems.
That said, I do agree with Stacey Champion, who has made it her role to raise hell about heat deaths in Arizona. It's an outrage when an elderly person dies because she couldn't pay her power bill.
As noted, the ethics are easy.
What are we going to do about it?
Opinion alerts: Get columns from your favorite columnists + expert analysis on top issues, delivered straight to your device through the USA TODAY app. Don't have the app? Download it for free from your app store.
The problem before us is a collective responsibility. Yes, the utilities have an obligation to provide a grace period so that no one suddenly finds themselves at risk of death during high temperatures.
But who is responsible for the social work – the door-to-door checks to ensure that people who can't pay their power bills have other options to keep the cool air flowing?
Utilities are not charities. They are businesses. It's not their job to ensure the health and safety of our most vulnerable people.
That's a job for the larger community – for government and perhaps charities. We need to provide and pay for the safety net for people who cannot help themselves.
So, what's our next step?
Phil Boas is an editorial columnist with The Arizona Republic, where this column originally appeared. Email him at [e-mail]
You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: APS, SRP don't deserve blame for Arizona heat deaths. We do | Opinion